Fall Break Hike in Orderville Canyon
The day started at 6:00 am as we arose, got our packs ready and loaded two vehicles. Dan, Dawson, Andrew and I were joined by my sister Jill from Logan, her husband Ron, their daughter Krista and her husband, Chris. The boys were off for Fall Break (UEA) and Chris was off from USU. Chris and Krista were down here to Zion this summer and loved the hiking and wanted to do some more. Chris said that her wanted an adventure, and that is what we gave him. We left for Zion just after 7:00 am and didn’t get home until 11:00 pm that night!
We had reserved the hike permit on line but had to stop at Zion, pick up the permit, and pay $20. We got there just after 8:00 and the line was very long. After over an hour we were finally headed out with our permit in hand. The ranger said that we should expect some water and that wearing a wet suit was recommended. Yeah, who is going to carry a wet suit on an 11 mile hike?
We left one vehicle at the bottom in Zion just outside the park and all piled in our Excursion and drove an hour up through the tunnel, past Clear Creek Ranch and to the Orderville Canyon trailhead. There is a rough dirt road you can take to cut 2 ½ miles off the hike, but we opted to start hiking from the top.
When we got to the start of the canyon we saw that even though it was 11:00 am, there was still ice around the edges of the stream. That immediately warned us that the water was going to be cold. We hiked through beautiful canyon walls highlighted with the wonderful colors of the changing fall leaves. It was 2:00 pm and we had stayed dry but were glad that we had our sweatshirts because the canyon was always in the shade and we needed them to stay warm.
Then the canyon narrowed, we heard the trickle of the stream grow louder and we came to a water obstacle that required us to roll up our shorts and hike through the frigid water. That wasn’t bad, we thought. Before long we were holding up our shirts to our chest line and forging across the water. Then we came to the first repel. We were thankful that Dan had come equipped with rope, harness and webbing. One by one we hooked up and were lowered into the water below. We had to throw our packs in an assembly line to get them across the water obstacles. Needless to say, each repel became more difficult and we landed in deeper water. Finally, the only way across was to get lowered in and swim. If you have hiked the subway—you know the feeling of swimming in ice. It takes your breath away, and even though this is your big chance to relieve your self, your bottom is so frozen you can not activate your relief system.
Being an experienced ice water swimmer, I just screamed and swam as fast as I could to the other side. When my sister Jill, in her early 50’s, got to the other side, I asked her if she was ok. And she said, “NO”. Then I remembered my first time when I was with my children and we were all crying. I realized that we had to keep moving as it was nearing 5:00 pm and the sun goes down at 6:50. Jill led the way in our fight or flight mode. We didn’t hesitate as we came to more cold pools. We jumped right in and did what we had to do. (Notice our pictures end before the big technical repels and swims. We didn’t have time to preserve the memory, or their may have not been anyone alive in which to need to remember.
We finally made it to where Orderville Canyon meets up with the Virgin River in the Narrows hike. We screamed with delight later finding out that our husbands and family had thought that we had come to another “technical” spot. We determined that we had another two miles of hiking in mostly knee high water to get to Zion Park and the river walk trailhead. With our feet frozen we tread on reaching the people who were out for a leisurely stroll on the boardwalk “experiencing” Zion Canyon. We smiled as we passed, laughing to ourselves, having just “truly experienced the marvel, the beauty, the technicality and joy of conquering Zion.”
We left the kids at the pizza place, in their wet clothes, where they ordered pizza while we made the trip up to get the vehicle at the top of the mountain. The heater in the truck was very appreciated. Reaching home at 11:00 pm, there was nothing like a hot shower and a warm bed after a very cold and long hike.
We never saw the sun after getting wet, unlike hiking in the Subway, where you get a chance to warm up after the swims. This hike was in our opinion more technical and just as pretty if not more so than the Subway. Will we do it again, yes, but not unless it is 110 degrees outside! Next time, won’t you join us?
